how much power...

[Xplosive_Sheep]

how much power can my puny stock alternator put out? its a brand new 2002, and i want to put the biggest amp in there without draining my battery

[crxlvr]

imma take a guess at this and say its about 85amps.

[Xplosive_Sheep]

you mean watts? damn, screw that im going for 500 :P

[91AcrdMan]

Originally posted by Xplosive_Sheep
you mean watts? damn, screw that im going for 500 :P

nope he ment amps... and you can get rewound ones that put out like 130amps

[Pennzoil GT-R]

if ya wanna know how much power u will get out from 85amps then use:

Power (Watts) =Voltage (Volts) x Current (Amps)

[Xplosive_Sheep]

so how do i figure out how many volts my car can handle so that i can figure out how many amps i can have ??????

[Pennzoil GT-R]

well thats where you need a voltmeter, unless it says the output on it somewhere. Unless you can measure it then youre gonna get all confused in a mass of sums that are gonna end up with you needing to measure something in the end anyway

[Xplosive_Sheep]

daaaaang, im way to lazy to do all this work, i think that at 450watt amp should do just nicely, my bro has had one for a long time and it hasnt drained his battery, wish me luck

[PaulD]

well, that gives you the absolute power ........... 14 volts X 85 amps = 1190 watts. But amps are not a static load like say headlight. The power an amp pulls is more in pulses ......... but a 1000 watt RMS amp only pulls only like 100-200 watts of average power. You should be able to run 1200-1500 watts of power with no problem.

[colechaney]

It won't drain your battery. Your headlights will just dim whenever the bass hits, it might drop your rpm's a lil too, but not enough to stall you or anything. To fix the problem just get a capacator or two. They sell Rockford-Fosgate 1 farad capacators at Best Buy, for like $100 a piece. Just make sure you get them professionally installed because if you don't charge them before you put them in, they can explode.

[Xplosive_Sheep]

are you two absolutly sure?? cause from what i have heard before completely contradicts what you said...man now i am even more confused

[ACCSlvCivic]

Originally posted by colechaney
It won't drain your battery. Your headlights will just dim whenever the bass hits, it might drop your rpm's a lil too, but not enough to stall you or anything. To fix the problem just get a capacator or two. They sell Rockford-Fosgate 1 farad capacators at Best Buy, for like $100 a piece. Just make sure you get them professionally installed because if you don't charge them before you put them in, they can explode.

caps are useless: http://pub51.ezboard.com/fcaraudioknowledgefrm7
read the truth about caps there. i run a 800watt system with no dimming at all (full blast).

[Xplosive_Sheep]

i guess i dont know enough about audio to understand, but my brother runs a 450x1 on a 12 bandpass and he gets his civic headlights dimmed everytime there is a big bass note....

[PaulD]

it's not really "audio" ... it's physics. If a source, like an amp, draws more power than the alternator can provide - the voltage of the system will start to droop (lower). Amps with real stiffly regulated power supplies can make this even worse, since as the voltage drops it increases it's current demand to keep the power input constant (power = voltsXamps). For some car/amp combos, a capacitor can help to stiffen up the electrical system and prevent those voltage droops when the bass hits that cause the headlights to flicker with the beat of the bass, for others - they do nothing. NOTE: capacitors do NOT increase your SPL or the subjective sound quality.

[luti]

I have a completely different question, but I'll ask you guys since you seem to be a knowledgabe bunch. Why do you need so many watts in a car stereo. I have a many stereos in my house, both solid state and vacuum tube and none of them is over 80 watts, except the surround sound amp, and that is only 250x5, or 50 watts per channel. All of the stereos in my house run on extremely efficient speakers and the sound quality is great. Infact, the Dynaco Dynakit Tube amp is the best sounding, and probably puts out no more than 30 watts a side running on a set of Electro Voice speakers. I also have a Fender Dual Showman, it's a 100 watt single channel guitar amp pushing 2 15" speakers. So my question again is why the need for extreme power in such a small car with such small speakers?